Understanding the relationship between age and seafood consumption: the mediating role of attitude, health involvement and convenience

This study discusses and analyses the relationship between the consumer's chronological age and frequent consumption of seafood, and how this relationship is mediated by three psychological variables: Attitudes/preferences towards eating seafood, involvement in healthy eating and perceived time used to prepare meals (convenience). This is done by cross-sectional data and with the assumption that people's life course is important in modelling food consumption behaviour. By using structural equation modelling, we were able to estimate the strength and direction of direct and indirect relationships between external, internal and behavioural variables as proposed in general attitude theory. Age is positively related to the frequency of seafood consumption. This relationship is mediated by attitudes toward eating seafood, health involvement and perceived convenience. In developing and testing conceptual models which integrate the relationship between age and psychological mediator variables, we may approach a deeper understanding of the more complex relationship between external and internal psychological variables in people's selection of food over their life course. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.